“It’shis blood glucose,” Arabelle Reed, a paramedic for the Adair County EMS, saysto her colleagues.

Themonitor overhead shows blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and more vitalsreadings. The group of paramedics consult one another and the material in frontof them to figure out how they need to treat the patient laying in front ofthem. Only this time, the patient is not a real child in a medical emergency,instead it is a simulator patient that the EMS crew is getting a hands-ontraining with to sharpen their skills.

From2005 to December 2021, 181 rural hospitals have closed their doors. By bringingtrainings on the road with a mobile simulation unit, MU Health is bringingvital trainings and filling in gaps that have arose. The current truck has twosimulation rooms that allow participants to get two real life trainings in oneday, generally on a child simulator and a newborn simulator because they seethose type of patients less often than adults.

DenaHigbee is the Executive Director of Simulation at the Shelden ClinicalSimulation Center for MU Health. Her background of being from a rural communitydrives her passion to do the work that she does. “We can do more as aninstitution to provide training,” Higbee said and has hopes to continuallyincrease the number of rural communities they provide training to. 

Role: director, cinematographer, editor.